Speed Limit Sign

Statewide Speed Studies

Services Planning & Traffic Engineering
Client MnDOT
Estimated Construction Cost $7.0M
Location Districts 1, 4, 6, 7, and 8 in MN

Project Overview

In 2014, the Legislature required MnDOT to study all of its existing 55 m.p.h. 2-lane rural trunk highways to determine whether it would be safe to increase some or all to 60 m.p.h. MnDOT selected us to provide traffic investigations and safety studies—on over 5,000 miles of trunk highways—to determine which areas can have speed limits safely increased from 55 m.p.h. to 60 m.p.h. Our work includes spot speed sampling, field investigations, crash along with other data analysis, and reporting.


Spot speed studies are being performed for each of more than 350 study segments. Measure point travel speeds of a representative sample of vehicles in the population are also being conducted. Field investigations are needed to assess the physical attributes of the roadway and surrounding environment, including travel lanes and shoulders, presence or lack of rumble strips, access density, vertical grades, roadside assessment, steepness of inslopes, adjacent development, traffic control along mainline, and advisory and regulatory speed reductions.


Analysis and reporting include analyzing speed and crash data, with summary reports provided to MnDOT.


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Beyond Design

We customized user-friendly reports that provide an at-a-glance look at crash rates, speed sample results, and field investigation findings. We started collecting data and creating reports for trunk highways across the state. We completed our work for this project in 2019.

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Community Responsibility

Speed is an important public safety issue. We’re proud to be a part of a project dedicated to saving lives and reducing serious accidents in the community.